Your Money or Your Life - A Comment on the Financial Crisis

Which do you value most?: Your money or your life? This was what highway robbers used to demand. I mean the ones that used to ride horses in the olden days. TV and newspaper coverage of the world financial crisis at present would lead you to believe most people are opting for the money. Terrorism, climate change, droughts and warfare are being pushed aside in the rush to beg for mercy at the shrine of the stock exchange.

Now don’t get me wrong. I don’t mean to belittle the seriousness of the situation. The crisis is causing very real, life-changing problems to many people and to their dependants. I did however say life-changing, not life-threatening. Some of you may still argue with that too. If you don’t have the money, what value is there left in life?

That’s where I believe the situation really gets serious. The day we put money at the centre of life is the day we stop valuing the natural wealth stored within the authentic self – the inner person we are, have been since birth and will continue to be until death us do part. That’s the person who is the source of:
• personal growth, satisfaction and lifelong desires.
• passions that drive potential, stored within a unique mix of natural-born skills, abilities and talents.

In the last couple of decades or so, humanity has had to come to terms with dramatic changes, stresses and pressures to perform. It has been made easier by the ready availability of money to buy almost anything we want. The sudden loss of that money availability – and the need to pay back loans - has reminded us that happiness and financial wealth are located on two entirely different life paths.

Personal values have become vague and uncertain in deference to the politics of economic rationalism in which everything is measured by the dollar.

They say good comes out of all ills. I am increasingly hearing positive, human responses to the economic crisis:
• Deciding to love the person they are, no matter what money they have.
• Philosophical reflections that life goes on no matter what,
• appreciating more what they have, rather than what they would like.
One of my friends, who owns a very successful business, has developed what he calls a minimalist approach to life – enjoying the fact that, within himself, he has everything he needs, irrespective of any impact the financial situation has on his business.

This isn’t a debate on which is right – financial worth or self worth. It doesn’t seek an either/or answer. It’s about respecting the fact that success is found from within, utilizing all the resources - natural and material – at our disposal. It’s about respecting the dignity and worth of humanity – self and others.

We come into the world with nothing and we will leave it the same way. It’s what we did along the way, not the money we spent, that others will remember after we’ve gone.

Work Leisure International is Re-locating to Sydney

It’s time to take the next step in developing Work Leisure International. Carol and I are re-locating to Sydney as from mid January 2009. The move not only gives us the opportunity to test the Sydney market but also to further develop our national and international operations. Our services to Adelaide clients will continue.

True to my professional and personal beliefs, the move is a joint agreement between Carol and me. We both feel blessed in having found new love later in life and we share our decisions – especially ones as major as this. We have agreed to reassess the situation after six months.

To our Adelaide clients, colleagues and friends, Adelaide will continue to be an important part of our lives. To those of you who see potential value in the services of Work Leisure International for you or someone you know in Sydney, please let me know (thank you to a number of you who have already done so). Our early days there will be very much a ‘listening and learning’ expedition.

Watch this space for more news on this fascinating and exciting phase in the growth of Work Leisure International and in the lives of Peter and Carol.

The Free Things in Life are Best

Employers of choice know one of the big secrets to winning and keeping staff loyalty is to give them free rewards. These rewards come in the form of dignity, respect, recognition, social acceptance, self esteem, trust and attention. Research is showing that the simple “thank you for a job well done” is being seen to offer a greater return on staff investment than an increase in salary.

People don’t work for organizations – they work for people, they stay because they are treated as human beings, they leave managers who seem to have forgotten they (the managers) are themselves human beings.

The current world financial crisis is hurting the employment scene greatly. Even more so in these tight times will business need to employ the right people for them. If they truly believe that the free things in life are best, they will have a much better chance of surviving and thriving, despite a tight salary budget.

Is Anybody Retiring?

I'm told my Retirement Lifestyle Planning services have gone down the drain because of the current world financial crisis. People can't afford it, they say.

Rubbish! People had already stopped retiring.

Historically, retirement had a pretty short life. It was a product of the industrial revolution, a means of telling people they were too old to work anymore, that they should get out of the way and give their job to a younger person.

Now, as people move through their 50's they start thinking about a new life, a second adulthood. One that focuses on what they really want out of life - paid or unpaid. Sure, work is important but the prime focus is on the non-monetary attributes of work - connection with like-minded people, recognition, staying in touch with the world, learning new skills, investing in one's own abilities, contribution to social development, etc

It's Work/Life harmony in reverse - Life/Work harmony. Instead of trying to fit a life around work, it's about life perhaps including work. More accurately its Life Harmony, but people love that word 'work' in there somewhere.

So nothing has really changed as a result of the financial crisis. People still want a new adulthood - it just might mean that work is perhaps a slightly bigger part of the mix than they previously had in mind.

Did this comment talk to you? Let me talk to you by clicking here to register for my next online Business Experts Webinar on "The Transition from Work to Retirement", 5.30 pm Monday 24 Nov 2008 (US Eastern Time) 9.00 am Tuesday 25 Nov (Australian EDS Time)

Walking My Talk

Given my business is about the benefits of enjoyment, people wonder if I'm one of those sickly people who is always telling everyone how happy he is. The answer I always give is that the only way to really appreciate the highs of life is to also experience the lows. People close to me in my life get to hear about those times of course. But you don't want to hear about my problems - I am sure you have enough of your own.

It's just that after more than 30 years of observing what people are like when they are doing something just for the hell of it, seeing the looks in their eyes and the spring in their step, it has become deeply instilled in me that there's a powerful lot of good in enjoyment, far beyond simply having a good time.

So I try to keep a happy look at least publicly and I will always emphasize the positives of life in my writings and business. There's enough said about life's problems and stresses. I like to enjoy being the real me whenever possible and I want you to do the same.

A Dream Realized through Business Expert Webinars

When I started my present business back in 2003, I was told a big goal took no more thinking effort than a small goal. I decided to think internationally in achieving my goal of making people in business and in personal life more aware of the powerful benefits of the right leisure interests for work and personal life success. So I started by calling my business Work Leisure International.

In the 4+ years since then, I have managed to achieve a great deal - mainly in my home city of Adelaide but also elsewhere in Australia and to a reasonable extent, given my limited resources, internationally.

But I wanted to be an international speaker and to do this I had previously imagined I would have to travel to other countries. Australia is a long way from anywhere so I felt it would probably cost me a lot of money to get me started. So I focused my attention on putting articles into Article Directories (see examples on the right hand of this page)

The beauty of articles online is not only you get known widely but you overcome one of the great issues in doing business on the internet - establishing credibility and trust. Print consistently popular articles and people start to say "hey this guy knows his stuff!"

Turns out my articles had attracted the interest of Lee Salz the creator of Business Expert Webinars and his invitation to me to speak internationally through his Webinar program. Suddenly a longer-term dream of international speaking had become a reality without me having to even leave home! I won't spell out the details here. You can to find out the rest by going to http://www.businessexpertwebinars.com/index.php?option=com_comprofiler&task=userProfile&user=128&Itemid=29

I am excited and I know my presentations will be great! Please think about registering for the call of any of my 12 Business Expert Webinars, the first one being on 22 May 2008 (US EDT) on the topic of Transitioning from Work to Retirement.

Review of Australia's Health System

Australia's National Health and Hospitals Reform Commission has called for submissions on the future of the Australian Health System. I have put in a submission entitled "Enjoying Good Health". I have focused on (quoting from my submission) " the mutually-beneficial links between good health, enjoyment and the 'ripple effect' of enjoyable experiences, positively affecting everything that develops, nurtures and promotes good health."

Always good to at least give people in high places something to think about. Who knows? they might even like it! If you would like a copy of my submission (6 pages total), email me at peter@workleisure.com

Managing 21st Century Business by 19th Century Principles

Life changes fast – so fast we can’t keep pace. We haven’t any choice but to move with the times because we know if we don’t we’re sunk. And when we decide to make the most of it we often find it can be fun.

For some reason it all stops when people become a boss in business. It seems business is expected to change with the times in product development and sales but not in how it manages people. Recently I looked at the Taylor Principles of Management written in the 19^th Century and its scary how little they differ from the way bosses manage people today.

The bigger the organization the worse it is. The corporate kings (not too many queens yet) still:

• love starched white shirts, grey suits and ties
• promote bosses for their product knowledge ahead of people knowledge
• only trust staff to be working when they can see the whites of their eyes
• believe the longer you’re at the office the smarter you are
• step over a workaholic's dead body, looking for somebody to meet the next deadline
• see minimum movement as maximum efficiency
• think they know better than the workers.

Is it any wonder business management is one big mess?

Staff are kept in some sort of straight jacket and told “this is the way I (not we) do things here. You can like it or lump it.” In the next breath he (not too often she) is asking "why is the organization having trouble attracting and keeping good staff?”

When are the big bosses going to run business like people (including themselves) run their personal lives? Set goals and let 'em loose to do it their way, in their chosen place, using their own ideas. Give them the right to laugh or even to cry. Give them help when they ask for it, give them respect, because they love it.

The system wouldn’t be perfect but, like we say about life, it sure beats the hell out of the alternative.

I Wanna Be a Kid again! and become the me I wanted to be

Gee I loved being a kid. Living for the moment, laughing for the sheer joy of doing so, letting my imagination run wild, not trying to be someone I wasn't, saying "yes I can do that" to everything I wanted to try, even if I wasn't any good at it. I didn't have to worry about getting a job, a relationship, or pay off a mortgage. Nor did I realize that, while I was playing, I was also learning all the basics of life - how to talk, read, write, make my arms, legs and eyes work together, play by the rules that my friends and I made up on the spot and - best of all - negotiation skills, learned by convincing my parents to buy sweets and toys. Problems were resolved by a motherly kiss or going without dessert. Those were the days my friend, I thought they'd never end.

But they did.

Life became serious. Parents, friends and teachers carefully taught me what I had to do to succeed in the harsh world of reality. Having fun became a waste of time that could be much more usefully put into earning serious money. I was told to forget silly kid stuff, like jumping, drawing, singing, acting and doing roly-polies down a grassy hill. Instead, look around at what the adults are doing… copy them…don't be different or people will think you're dumb. Get a real job. Become a doctor, lawyer, teacher, engineer - anything that makes people look at you in awe.

So I did.

I started taking courses I didn't want to do. I did degrees that were going to take me somewhere, but got me nowhere. I started getting assessed - for the right school, right friends, right sport, right university, right job, right partner…the right path to whatever other people told me would take me down that glorious road to success, fulfillment and happiness. And no, I didn't always get chosen. I often wasn't good enough, qualified enough, wealthy enough, talented enough, dressed well enough, intelligent enough, or trained enough.

Then I started to see the light.

What I was getting enough of was stressed, pressured, changed, controlled, confused, uncertain and misguided. The one life I had was slipping by fast. I was reaching each of "the big 0's" faster and faster. Finally I hit the big 6-0 - when bosses tell you: "you're too old to work anymore. Go find a nice pasture. Book into God's waiting room where you can pass the time until you die".

That's when I exploded.

"Enough is enough is enough!!!" It's time for me to be me - the me I always wanted to be when I was a child. It hit me that life in my 60's had much in common with life in my childhood. I didn't have to worry about a job (though I could work if I wanted to), or a mortgage (it was under control) or even a relationship (I was happily married). I could do anything I felt like doing - even if I wasn't any good at it. I could become a kid again. And this time it could be even better. I now had the benefit of a lifetime of experiences - good and bad - and even a little money on which to build my childhood dreams, skills, fun, interests and plans.

So I have become a kid again.

I am free to do as I please, when I want, with whom I want, for as long as I wish and at the pace I like. I don't have to be good at what I do. I just lose myself in the joy of the moment, laughing for the sheer pleasure of doing so, letting my imagination run wild, being the me I always wanted to be. I love it. I am learning, growing and blossoming into a truly successful person. I now know happiness is the journey, not the end and life is what you make of it, right this minute.

You wanna come out and play?

Welcome to work around the clock

One of the many unanticipated consequences of globalisation is that increasing numbers of people are working to a global schedule It means that people are working in different time zones and geographies, almost as a matter of course. (Weekend Australian Feb 16-17 2008).

This is a dramatic example of how life is now a 24/7 continuum with no clear distinction between work and personal life. Many of the people in these global jobs work from home which makes the distinction even more blurred.

It's also a good example of how people who love their job - as the various people interviewed in this article indicated - can allow the risk of burnout to go unnoticed until things go wrong. Bill Withers of Perth is quoted in the article as saying that "people can keep working to international hours only if their employers allow them some flexibility. You've got to make sure people have a life outside of business. I've been the President of the local footy club for 3 years".

I see my business as helping people to recognize the potential problems of today's 24/7 lifestyle and ensure that they get a life outside of work now, not when the health or relationship starts to crack. You wouldn't wait until you have a money problem before you develop a financial plan. Don't wait til you have a lifestyle problem before you plan to find what I call an "interest break" - a non-work interest that you enjoy so much that you forget your work and other problems for a while. Personal interests that you enjoy creating in your own time are not just fun, they could save your life.

Real enjoyment is a state of flow

You know that lovely feeling when you are so lost in an activity that time and space seem to stand still? I have been listening to a tape by a man with an unpronouncable name - Mihaly Csikszentmihalyl - on the subject of Flow. His explanation shows a clear connection between the feeling of enjoyment and the feeling of a state of flow. His views and mine have so much in common that I would love to meet and chat with him - once I can properly pronounce his name!

I often speak of the ripple effect of enjoyment flowing through into all aspects of life. Mihaly speaks of 8 characteristics of flow - a clear sense of achieving moment to moment goals, experiencing challenges that reasonably match your skills, being totally focused on the task at hand, having your mind relieved of all else around you for the time being, forgetting problems, experiencing a sense of spontaneous energy and experiencing a positive form of escape from reality. In my professional opinion, these sort of characteristics of flow are the characteristics of deep enjoyment experiences that trigger the ripple effect of enhancing all aspects of one's life. The outcomes are in the form of increased self esteem, self confidence, self belief and increased sense of self worth. They are feelings that don't go away the moment the enjoyable experience (state of flow) comes to an end. They flow on for an inestimable time, indeed for life.

When you think about it, the ripple effect that I speak of is, in fact, a process of heightened self esteem flowing through all aspects of life. I shall be adding this sort of thinking to my workshops, speaking and writings (with due acknowledgement to Mihaly).

A Recent Enjoyable Experience

Having two hours of quality quiet chat time - face to face - with my 35 year old son during our recent holiday in Perth. He lives four hours flying time away so we only see each other a couple of times a year. We discussed all those things that add so much to father and son bonding. It was lovely spending time with his family (wife Cathy and two beautiful grandchildren) but there is something very special about long father/son chats in person.

A Working Holiday

A working holiday is something of an oxymoron - particularly when said by a lifestyle consultant! Yeah I feel a bit guilty in admitting that I accepted a request to conduct a lifestyle management workshop for a CEO and his senior management team while I was on holidays in Perth. Well done! you might say - earning money to pay for the holiday or being able to put some of the holiday costs down as a business tax deduction. Hard to disagree with any of that.

Much as I often joke that I am like the landscape gardener who's got the worst garden in the street, I still feel it is not a good message to send to my clients and readers. So why am I making such a point of it here??

One, it helps you understand that, while I enjoy and passionately believe in all the words I write and things I say about work life harmony, I do live in the real world and experience all the pressures and temptations that you do. When asked if I am always a happy smiling laughing chap, I respond that we have to experience sadness and tragedy to truly appreciate the benefits of enjoyment. I am no different to anyone else in that regard.

Second, everything in life is a learning experience and this was a great one for me. The client's needs opened up fascinating new opportunities for me to better understand the minds of senior managers when it comes to lifestyle management issues - for them personally and for the staff they manage. Being outside of my home city of Adelaide added to the experience.

Third, it was in the city of my son - whom I only see a couple of times a year and who has seen little of the way his father has turned 30 years of professional recreation planning and development experience into a lifestyle management consultancy. This was indeed a wonderful way of maintaining and strengthening the father/son bonding when we live four hours flying time apart.

So yes, I look back with a large degree of satisfaction on my decision to make it a working holiday (well, just half a day out of a week). It demonstrated that work life harmony goes well beyond simply ensuring you break up your working life with enjoyable personal interests. This experience gave me another way of understanding how "getting the mix right" can add huge value to my personal growth and family relationships.

Success

People want success. The public perception of success tends to be very narrow - financial success, winning, doing better than the opposition, having lots of material things. They are all focused on how we can look successful in the eyes of other people. But success is very personal and relates first and foremost to how we each see our own personal progress in life. This is the sort of success we want to be able to look back on in our later years - and keep pursuing til the day we die.

This sort of success is about understanding and expressing the person we really are and have been all our lives. Its about discovering, maximising and enjoying the skills, talents and abilities with which we were born. The public perceptions of success tend to make us want to be the sort of person we think others expect us to be, rather than to be the person we really are.

We have to overcome some self-generated constraints. In an age of speed and stress, we need to be prepared to stop and reflect more, identify our passions, what experiences really bring us alive, what interests we put aside in past years so we could focus on being the person we think other people expect us to be.

Enjoy being the person you really are. That sort of success isn't measured in money, status or ego. Achieving true success in life might well be apparent to no-one but you. When you achieve that sort of success, however, you can be very sure that others will notice and applaud you.